AND 1 Streetball

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These basketball magicians deserve better.

By Jeff Haynes

It's impressive to see someone who's mastered a skill at work: it's even more astounding when you see these experts perform seemingly impossible feats with their talents. The And 1 tour features the fast-paced steps and mesmerizing hand skills of the best players from America's streetball courts. An urban hip-hop infused evolution of the Harlem Globetrotters, And 1 often comes down to the one-on-one breakdown between players, with flashy tricks and a focus on embarrassing your opponent. Sounds like a good concept for a game, right? Unfortunately, And 1 Streetball's horrible control scheme, visual glitches and other issues remove most, if not all of the dynamic play that makes the And 1 Mixtapes or live tour so enthralling.

At its core, And 1 Streetball comes with a basic number of game modes. The main focus is the And 1 Mixtape Tour. Following a character that you create, the Mixtape Tour takes you around the country to different cities as you try to become the latest And 1 member. Each city has three elements to it -- first is an Open Run which pits the best amateurs against each other for the chance to move on to the next round. Next are the side games, which are akin to tutorial refreshers that also help move the "story" along. While you'll have a primary goal of being first to 11 points or beating another team before time runs out, you'll also have side goals that have to be accomplished before you can move on with the story. These include alley-ooping to yourself or blocking a set amount of shots. Finally there is the Main Run, where the selected amateurs from a court face off against an And 1 squad with the best players moving on to the next spot on the tour.

5-on-5 battle

Successfully completing the stages in a city will earn you additional money that you can use to upgrade your stats or get tattoos, as well as new movesets, clothes and movies of the And 1 ballers in action. The most disappointing facet of the story mode is that it's practically the same from start to finish. Each city will stagger a side goal between the Open and Main Runs, which comes across more like busy work to stretch out a short "career mode". There's almost no point to doing these games, nor is there a reason to be forced to do side goals to continue (that's the reason why they're considered "side goals" in the first place).

Aside from the main mode, there's the option to play half-court or full-court pick up games with more than 60 available ballers in the game. Most of these guys excel at different things based on their position, such as their ball handling or their jumping abilities, and you'll be able to decide everything from the time of day and points scored to win to the number of players in the game (from 1-on-1 to a full 5-on-5 match). You'll also be given the chance to choose from any one of the various Streetball "Meccas," like Mosswood, The Rucker and Venice Beach. Finally, there's the chance to practice at the And 1 training facility or get tutored by Rafer Alston, the legendary streetballer known as Skip to My Lou.

It's a bird, Professor!

And 1's Tutorial mode walks you through the basics of the game, along with introducing you to its multi-tiered "I ball" trick system. Based on whether you're moving with the ball or not, you can pull off a number of trick moves designed to confuse, fake out or humiliate a defender. Ostensibly, you perform what's called a Level 1 "setup dribble", designed to prep your opponent for the next step, the flashier Level 2 "showboat move". Here, your player pulls off some fast-paced spin, dribble or other feat with the ball to lose their opponent. Finally, the Level 3 "anklebreaker" is used to trip up an opposing player, making them fall to the ground as you rush past them. While you can technically pull off any one of these leveled moves at any time, it's supposed to be much easier to chain them together, making their chance for success increase with each step.